Nourish

Over the next four weeks we wanted take a deeper look into the components that go into a functional lifestyle.

Defining a Functional Lifestyle

For those of you participating in the Avena/Fieldlab Whole Health Challenge, these articles will help you understand the purpose behind each point metric. If you are not participating in the challenge, this four part series will provide resources and education on how to realign your every day with a functional lifestyle. We hope this series peaks your curiosity and inspires you to take action in your own life.  ​

Nourish

Nourish(v.)  /ˈnəriSH/

• Eat real food, drink plenty of water, supplement wisely, expose yourself to light, breath, sleep deeply—fully fueling your body for success. 

This week is all about nourishing the body. We often consider the food we eat as our only fuel source but there is so much more involved than just the food we eat. Take a look at the articles below to understand how food, light, and hydration all play a part in nourishing our bodies.

Light: The Fundamental Nutrient of Life
​In order to create a functional lifestyle and achieve optimal health, we must understand and center our actions around the sun. Our mitochondria utilize the sun's nourishing spectrum to stimulate efficient production of ATP and fight inflammation.

You Are What Your Food Once Ate
Optimizing our health and creating a functional ecosystem requires that we understand what had contributed to the final food products we purchase - this is especially true for meat. ​

Hack Your Hydration: Simple Tips For Optimization
Hydration is critical to proper cellular function. A depleted H2O supply means cells cannot product enough ATP to support an active lifestyle. In addition, your body has a lessened ability to handle inflammation. ​

Optimize Your Coffee. Fuel Your Functional Health.
The health benefits of drinking coffee are incredible, but poor sourcing, roasting and production practices can actually have a negative impact. Considering the following factors is essential: mold and mycotoxins, pesticides, and harmful additives.

Shed Light On Your Function
Natural light has incredible health benefits including improvements in sleep, metabolic efficiency, and vitamin D production. Direct exposure to the sun is the easiest way to harness the healing power of natural light but must be done consciously as not to have negative effects. ​

The Whole Health Challenge: Getting Started

What Is A Functional Lifestyle? 
A functional lifestyle is the basis for creating optimal health. Living a functional lifestyle requires commitment to supporting your body's needs and an environment conducive to success.

Tracking Your Self-Experiment 
​Achieving functional health requires a willingness to test new variables and effective methods for tracking the results. Tracking creates consistency, which creates results. As a result, it is fundamental to a functional lifestyle.